Quick summary:

The good:

1 Loughs and especially Buckley had excellent games in the scrum and round the field, as did Rodney when he came on. Scrum and maul - whether from lineout or holding up players - were excellent.

2 Marmion and Fifata did well enough for their debuts.

3 Nikora's garryowens were the right tactic for the day and very productive thanks to a good hang and a good chase.

The bad:

1 All the other kicking. Duffy caught everything but kicked a lot of ball aimlessly downfield that should have gone into touch, Griffin and Fetu also.

2 McCarthy showed his rustiness, I've never seen him so anonymous

3 the backrow mixed the good with the very bad.

The ugly:

1 Griffin pulled up - again - with an injury. when's the last time he made it through a game? How long will he be out for this time?

2 Fetu. Knocked on 3 high balls in the first half, all of which allowed Cardiff out of their 22 or into ours, and then started to let the ball bounce. You know you're having a nightmare as a winger when you're replaced with the sub outhalf

3 The lineout. Coughed up the try that cost us the game, a joke until Flav started throwing to Muldoon and Gannon, at which points it ascended the heights of "messy but somewhat functional".

Next week?

From a systems POV the lineout and the kicking from the back 3.

From a personnel POV, I don't like the "hang Fetu" thing but a marker has to be set down for what happens when performance is unacceptable. I'd like to see JOC and Macca on the bench, Faloon and Gannon did enough when they came on to deserve a start. And I'd like to see Griffin off the team until such time as he's fixed. Properly.

Funk It wrote:

Porterbelly wrote: Vainikolo under the high ball is a disgrace

Didn't witness todays performance, but was it as bad as the match down in Thomand? Can still remember the Munster giggles by his mistakes (especially their try) that evening. Was really hoping that he turned a corner (end of last season and Exeter), but as Borders mentioned, he is a dry weather player... is that the excuse?

"dry weather player", what a load of short sighted bollocks. Fetu is by far our best back, power pace and huge eagerness to get involved. The other winger yesterday afternoon was a disgrace, uninterested, lazy, total unawareness of his position no interest in getting back into position and could not tackle an under 7 if he tried to tackle an under 7 as he preferred pretending to tackle and miss. Fetu dropped two high balls, disappointing but it happens, Muldoon dropped four in one game last season lets call him a dry weather player. In the last 15 minutes Mata knocked on everything that was given to him, Griffin needlessy kicked the ball away when on two decent attacks and as for the age old Elwood tactic(that never worked) lets kick the ball up in the air to see how high we can get it, did not work as predicted. Some individuals performed yesterday and some didn't perform due to not been given the opportunity or bad luck but that rubbish about Fetu has to have a look at himself is just that pure rubbish. Every one of the backs on duty yesterday have to look at themselves it was a disgraceful performance.

Porterbelly wrote: Vainikolo under the high ball is a disgrace

Didn't witness todays performance, but was it as bad as the match down in Thomand? Can still remember the Munster giggles by his mistakes (especially their try) that evening. Was really hoping that he turned a corner (end of last season and Exeter), but as Borders mentioned, he is a dry weather player... is that the excuse?

The pre-season optimism didn't last long. Woeful stuff. Mistakes at this early stage of the season you can handle but really it was difficult to see what Connacht were trying to do for long stages of the game this evening. We made a lot of our own problems.

Bluesboy wasn't lying that wasn't a great Cardiff side but they played a lot smarter and with a lot more structure than we did, took the few chances that came their way and defended our one-dimensional approach well.

If there is a defence for Connacht its that its the first game with a number of key players missing and the likes of McCarthy, Loughney, Duffy hadn't got a run out in pre-season.

I don't know what others saw in Marmion that I missed but for me he was well off the pace. (He's a young lad and it was a tough evening weatherwise to play at scrum half but far too ponderous for my liking) I was hugely dissapointed Moore didn't get on.

Connacht started fairly well, got the edge in the scrums and should have had at least 1 score to show for a strong opening 15 minutes but weren't clinical enough.

Vainikolo needs to take a good look at himself at this stage, he has had enough time to settle in Connacht and his performance tonight was woeful. I know he's a dry weather player but if you're not prepared to put your body on the line, there can't be a place in the starting lineup. Directly or Indirectly he has major questions to answer for at least 10 of the 13 points conceded and missed a number of tackles in 2nd half that allowed Cardiff out of the danger zone.

To go in 13 down at half time was dissapointing but Cardiff were still there to be beaten but we failed to put together phases and engaged in some awful aimless kicking. Cardiff had the better of the kicking with their half back combination definitely being the more accomplished. Again in the 2nd half we failed to capitalise at a key stage when on the Cardiff line.

Lineouts were very poor, regardless of conditions, Cardiff had a much higher lineout success rate and they wouldn't be as used to those conditions as our lads, Reynekce managed to regain two lineouts through hard work but the number lost were criminal and ruined any momentum.

Denis Buckley was a positive and is turning into a genuine option, thought Ronan Loughney did well for the hour too and made some decent carries, Fa'fita showed some good signs in the 1st half, Johnny O'Connor was busy as always, Flavin added a bit of impetus but overall that performance was way below the levels required if Connacht hope to do anything this season.

Crowd was a bit down but it was a rotten evening, hard to entice people into a poor game in those conditions.

Its game 1 of 22 in the league, no time to dwell on this one. Next week is a good chance to get back on track. We know the lads are better than that but really players and management need to settle on some sort of a gameplan next week or we'll be beaten again.

Nikora took the kick from 40 metres because the ref had said if we kicked to touch it was half time.

We were our own worst enemies, plenty of huffing and puffing with little reward. Knock ons, silly errors, very little structure. A mess really.

Positives for me were Johnny o Connor had a big 50 minutes and I'm still bemused as to why he was taken off, Duffy was excellent, Mata Fifita had a good first half, Marmion did ok and Denis Buckley was man of the match. He is way fitter than last year, scrummed really well against the vastly experienced Fi'ise and did some great work around the park.

Lineouts were shocking, Vainikolo under the high ball is a disgrace, Nikora stood 10 yards off the gainline for the whole game and his tactical kicking was awful. Hope Eric wields the axe next week. This was a very callow Cardiff side that we should be beating

where are all the comments. did they get deleted as they were so bad.
if you dont no what happened, read the thread here about the game vs aironi but it was 10 times worse. i dont know how honest i can be here. ill take it easy.

only player who wanted to try his best was denis buckley who played like a world class player. only player who ran all night, even won a penalty after chasing after the ball,
young scrum half played good, wont be surprised if he is no1 when everyone is fit. played 80 so dave moore was on the bench.
george was ok and so was duffy. new centre had a decent first half, got plenty of ball and is strong as a ox. all the other players were as poor as piss.

first half nikora took a kick from 22metre out against a strong wind, just before half time they deside to tell nikora to try a kick from 40 metre. go and try figure that. we were piss poor.

griffin was on the ground for awhile, jarvis on the line ready to come in, griffin hopped on one foot around the pitch for at least 5mins before jarvis came in.
we must of knocked on about 20 times. no less.
this was a mickey mouse cardiff team, sorry any blues fans but well done.
we kicked the ball away all through the first half aimless. same as last season when we blamed NOC but now we cant blame him.

Absolutely gutted, didn't see the game, only back in the door to check the result and when I saw that the last comment was from Seanin, I knew that we got beat (before reading the comment I may add). Such a shame really, and too be honest I don't know a whole lot about that Cardiff team, but this is disappointing, really disappointing.

On a positive note, good to hear that young Marmion had a stand out performance (apparently anyways).

not a happy bunny!!!

This is one of the games we should have won but somehow found a way to lose last season against a much stronger blues lineup than now. Im watchin ulster atm and noc has missed some easy ones again so i wont be missing that!

Bluesboy, I don't know if this will be your first time in Galway, but I hope you, and anyone you're bringing along, have a great time.

Make sure you fall in with a few local fans, we'll take care of you.

I'm worried about this one. Some question marks about the team thats starting. Back 3 is as strong as we have, Fa'fita I don't know a huge deal about but its a big step up for him, good to see Griffin back hopefully he gets a good 80 under his belt.

Marmion and Nikora is a new combination at half back, good to see Marmion get a chance, a strong showing from him tomorrow would be huge with regard to the season ahead as imo no.9 is our weakest position at present. Dave Moore must be thinking he should have moved on during the summer. Nikora has been good and bad but again a big performance can make the jersey his own and put pressure on Parks when he returns.

Pack is pretty much fine and will need to take ownership of the game against a weakened Cardiff pack. Denis Buckley had a few decent outings last season so hopefully he can put in a strong performance. Himself and Ronan Loughney will have to stay there for most of the game.

This one is likely to be tight but even allowing for injuries, given how many regulars Cardiff have absent its the sort of game we have to be winning.

Lets hope this team can get the job done and the injury worries will start to ease in the weeks ahead.

The IMF wrote:

bluesboy wrote: As expected the Blues side is officially the weakest and most inexperienced ever to be fielded at this level, due to internationals not back, injuries and obscure selections(eg Copeland the flanker in the second row and Davies the 3rd choice out half playing inside centre!) :ohmy:

You'll fit in well here bluesboy, I think we have written a few books on our own obscure selections over the last couple of seasons.

Delighted to see Grifin back in the team for us, his injury problems have at the least managed to temper the meteoric expectations that we all harbor for the lad. A untried partnership in the middle but hopefully will gel together well.

Interesting to note that Paddypower had us down at +1 prior to the announcement of the Blues team and then moved us to -1 thereafter. I think they aren't far off and it will be a close game.

Absolutely buzzing for the season to get going and hopefully securing 4 points tomorrow.

Oh my god, just seen that most bookies are giving both teams the same chance of winning this...even though I will be at the match as a Blues fan I will be backing Connacht to win the match at Evens as its a license to print money!!!

bluesboy wrote: As expected the Blues side is officially the weakest and most inexperienced ever to be fielded at this level, due to internationals not back, injuries and obscure selections(eg Copeland the flanker in the second row and Davies the 3rd choice out half playing inside centre!) :ohmy:

You'll fit in well here bluesboy, I think we have written a few books on our own obscure selections over the last couple of seasons.

Delighted to see Grifin back in the team for us, his injury problems have at the least managed to temper the meteoric expectations that we all harbor for the lad. A untried partnership in the middle but hopefully will gel together well.

Interesting to note that Paddypower had us down at +1 prior to the announcement of the Blues team and then moved us to -1 thereafter. I think they aren't far off and it will be a close game.

Absolutely buzzing for the season to get going and hopefully securing 4 points tomorrow.

connachtexile wrote: My point cows is this if they gave a proper injury list ala the following players are ruled out due to injury then we wouldn't be focusing on second hand information or rumours because we'd know who was available or not. It's not that hard for them to do when there say releasing the team that are going to be picked for a game.

While I agree with you on the lack of information from the Official Site (and it can be done much better: look at the football previews in the Guardian, it tells you who's missing, what injury they have and when they're expected back), the list of those who were definitely out was called out on the Tuesday (?) press conference, Dave Finn had it on Twitter ( @Furlo ). If the rest of the other journos present don't bother with it, that's their business.

As expected the Blues side is officially the weakest and most inexperienced ever to be fielded at this level, due to internationals not back, injuries and obscure selections(eg Copeland the flanker in the second row and Davies the 3rd choice out half playing inside centre!) :ohmy:

Good to see Connacht having strength in depth and hope you have a good season and challenge for a top half finish. On the subject of alternative 15s to the one selected for tomorrow, I am quite keen on this one for the blues:

15 Halfpenny
14 Cuthbert
13 Hewitt
12 Roberts
11 Czekaj
10 Tovey
9 Williams
8 Young
7 Warburton
6 Paterson
5 Cook
4 Davies
3 Andrews
2 Williams
1 Borrust

ConnachtCows wrote:

rossie wrote: Cows- almost all other teams announce players injured list when releasing squad selections
Its the norm these days.

What I'm arguing, is that Griffin isnt injured, so why would expect anything to be announced about him. As for listing injured players, Connacht do that sometime in the Press Release. Just didnt do it today. I'm not sure what the branch did wrong, and why the website is being blamed here. Yes, I'd prefer if the website had more articles and was updated more often, but I dont want to see gossip up there either

There is absolutely no harm in having a rolling list of our long term injured (say anything over four weeks) and possibly an expected return date. As a club we have suffered with quite a few talented players on long term injury over the years, and it's a good way to ensure that they are not forgotten by supporters while they are stuck doing their rehab. Galway's a small city too so supporters are most likely bumping in to these players not knowing what they crack is and too embarrassed to query (which they shouldn't be).

There seriously can't be many supporters who would confuse an expected return date with an actual date, most people know full well the situation regarding injury and rehab and the risk of a breakdown.

In fact they wouldn't even have to provide dates, La Rochelle used to provide expected return dates but have changed to just showing which players are infirmed: www.staderochelais.com/equipe-pro/linfirmerie

But within the list of things I'd like to see Connacht Rugby do with the site, it is well down the list..